A popular method of preparing meat, such as chicken, beef or pork, outdoors, makes use of charcoal burners in which the food is suspended to achieve the desirable cooked state. Numerous barbecue grill devices are prevalent, particularly of the "backyard" variety. Such devices include fireboxes, grills, and covers such as domes, as well as suitable air vents both beneath the charcoal fire as well as in the cover.
Much personal skill and judgment is used in utilizing these barbecue devices and it is common knowledge that some individuals are more skillful at preparing tasty and properly cooked food than others. Even with skilled cooks, however, the results are often varied.
There is a present growing trend, emanating primarily from the southwest portion of the United States, toward a large, mass-type public barbecue wherein large numbers of people, for instance, 100 or more, attend and are fed at such large-scale events. Food prepared by the barbecue method for such large events generally involves burning briquette-size charcoal contained in pits dug in the earth or, alternately, in large metal drum-like structures such as 50-gallon metal drums split longitudinally. Grillwork, for instance in the form of wire screening, is laid over the fire. The food is either placed directly on this grillwork or, where for instance a large animal such as a hog is prepared, a revolving shaft in the form of a spit is created.
Whereas in "backyard" cooking, the variable results referred to above are generally acceptable, it is highly desirable in barbecue events for large crowds to have a relatively uniform consistency in the end results. This has been hard to achieve with the prior art equipment, either individually fabricated or available from manufacturers.
Examples of equipment available from manufacturers include flat trays on legs for receiving the briquettes and grills of, for instance, rod steel suspended over the trays. Additional accessories include rotisseries in the form of a power driven, rotating shaft suspended above the firebox tray as well as flat metal covers which can be parked over the tray to control the escape of heat and cooking speed.
Such factory-manufactured apparatus corresponds in function and appearance rather closely to the homemade structures discussed above.
A more refined manufactured arrangement for large scale barbecue involves mobile, wood burning barbecue pits which restaurants, catering firms, and for instance theme parks use. These are in effect large stoves on wheels that involve stainless steel exteriors, refined thermostatic control mechanisms involving temperature-indicating signals and electronic controls. They generally burn wood logs.
Of course, all the above mentioned prior art seeks to utilize the actual or perceived benefits from cooking with heat created by burning wood in charcoal form, or otherwise. Such benefits include, when optimum conditions are attained, a moist, juicy, tasty, flavorful product wherein the flavor is derived from the wood.
Such desirable attributes of charcoal prepared food when done in an optimum manner are well known to the public.
In the prior art, in mass prepared barbecue cooking, as explained above, the benefits sought were often lost, and the cooked food was dry, burnt, non-uniformly cooked, cold, or otherwise unappetitizing. One or more of the numerous factors governing the barbecue were not suitably controlled; for instance, too fast cooking time, too high or too low heat, non-uniform heat, or an improper environment between the finish of the actual barbecuing and the serving of the food.